Friday, May 18, 2012

It's Wedding Time!

This year- more specifically, this past month- has been filled with a lot for me, to say the least. My best friend is getting married this weekend, and so I made her and her husband-to-be this extra large painting to be the first piece of original artwork in their new place (aside from the world map I made him a few months ago).

I wanted to incorporate their wedding date, but more prominently wanted to include pictures and words personal to them: they are getting married in southern Illinois this Saturday and then moving to Spokane, Washington next week, so I thought the words, 'love makes you better, makes you happy, takes you home' were perfect- accompanied by IL and WA. They're such an awesome, amazing, hilarious couple- I've been friends with the bride since we were seven and I cannot wait for this weekend.

Also happening this month: I'm making plans to launch a website, I'm sending work to Cleveland, OH for sale in a new shop, I'm on the hunt for a real, full-time big girl job, and I'm looking for a new living space/art studio. (That one excites me most!) I've literally imagined- corny as it sounds- having a real live place of my own since I was about ten or eleven. I fantasized and daydreamed about the idea probably close to an unhealthy amount- the thought has always been super romantic for me, partly because I had a very unstable upbringing and I have always craved the idea of 'home'- a space of my own where I could be at peace and free to be myself. For these past two post-college years I've been living with my cousin- the only truly peaceful, semi-permanent home I've yet experienced- and I am terrified and excited about moving forward to have all the things I think I deserve and want. (Oh... I was going to say: unstable upbringing, plus the fact that I really love decorating and I cannot wait to do that!)

It's funny to think about how, when we were in third grade, everyone was pretty much on level playing field: your faults and shortcomings and personal obstacles didn't matter when everyone got along and no one measured progress based on things like 'am I married yet?' or 'Do I have a good job yet?' or 'why am I so damn weird?' The bride-to-be and I went from both being simply "co-captains of our seventh grade soccer team" to one of us being a "ready-to-get-married 24 year old with a nursing degree and stable and supportive family life," and the other of us being a "generally career-clueless problem-child-turned-budding-artist still trying to find a place to live." I like it though- I think I've gone from being a very comparative, insecure person to being really okay with wherever I happen to be in life. Really I just feel truly blessed to be in the company of the same four best friends as I have had my whole life: it makes me think we must really have a substantial, real, authentic bond for us to have remained friends for so long, all of us being so very different. Fine by me.